Punjab’s judoka dominated the Boys section making a clean sweep of all three gold medals at stake in the 66 kg, 73 kg and 81 kg classes. However, the honours were shared evenly in the girls section, Haryana, Manipur and Gujarat picking up one each.
As the judo competition came to an end, Haryana topped the medals tally in judo with a haul of three gold, one silver and two bronze medals, while Punjab were right behind in second place with three gold and two bronze medals while Manipur two gold, three silver and one bronze medal. Gujarat also had two gold besides which they had one silver and one bronze. Delhi and Maharashtra had one gold each, both in Girls section.
On Wednesday, Mehakpreet Singh in the 66kg bout gave Punjab its first gold medal of the competition when he beat Thangjam Abun of Manipur by two wazari points that he scored through shio otoshi and ogoshi manoeuvres in a tough fight.
The 73 kg bout between Manpreet from Punjab and Delhi’s Jatin Solanki was easily the most closely contested one with the crowd getting firmly behind the Delhi boy. Jatin dominated for better part of the bout even as Manpreet painfully twisted his knee with more than two minutes left on the clock. Despite Jatin’s best efforts, and Manpreet’s injury, he couldn’t execute the point-scoring moves against the Punjab fighter’s defensive tactics. With the bout extending into the golden score period, the injured Manpreet scored the much needed wazari point against the run of play to clinch gold.
In the heaviest 81 kg class, the title bout between Punjab’s Harshpreet Singh and Naresh of Haryana also extended into the golden score period. With both fighters running out of steam, Harshpreet summoned the extra reserves to executed a difficult manoeuvre to pin down Naresh for the all important ippon point that brought an end to the exciting bout.
In the girls’ 52 kg class, Haryana’s Jagriti kept up the good work of the judokas from her state by claiming gold through a golden score point against Delhi’s Bhawna Tokas after the regulation four minute bout failed to yield any decisive advantage for both the fighters. She added one more gold to Haryana’s overnight tally of two gold and one bronze medal.
In the Girls 57kg, Manipur’s Chanam Rebina showed quick reflexes against Gauswami Shree of Gujarat to score an ippon with her trademark Ogoshi throw with 40 seconds left on the clock to win the second gold medal for Manipur in the meet.
The final bout in the in the girls event saw Dosani Eve of Gujarat take on Maharashtra’s Friya Khushno. The tall Gujarat fighter brought a swift end to the bout by countering Friya with the difficult Ura Nage counter to score an ippon.